Our Thursday nights have been significantly better now that The Golden Bachelor has been gracing our television screens, but some recent news has caused fans of The Bachelor franchise to question whether or not the entirety of the inaugural season has been a lie.
Following the same format as the rest of the shows within Bachelor Nation (with the exception of Bachelor In Paradise),The Golden Bachelor is a spin-off of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, bringing together a group of senior citizens for a second chance at love. After all, the lead of the series, Gerry Turner, did coin the phrase, “it’s never too late to fall in love again” — how heartwarming is that?
Staying true to the classics (one-on-one dates, group dates, rose ceremonies, and more), fans of The Bachelor franchise have loved The Golden Bachelor thus far, watching Gerry find love again after tragically losing his wife and high school sweetheart, Toni, after 43 years of marriage, but unfortunately for fans of the show, the 72-year-old might not be who he says he is.
On November 29, some controversial comments from his ex-girlfriend caused fans of The Bachelor franchise to raise their eyebrows, questioning whether or not Gerry is really golden. As per evidence obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, here’s the full story…
What is The Golden Bachelor controversy?
If you have been keeping up with the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor, it is a no-brainer that Gerry Turner is the perfect man. He has depth, humor, sensitivity, kindness, and more, and he is extremely handsome — what’s not to love?
In fact, it was not easy to find someone this perfect, with Gerry detailing on the Life Is Short podcast the elaborate screening process he had to partake in prior to being selected as the lead of the The Bachelor spin-off. “I had to send my fingerprints to the FBI, there were numerous background tests. There was a psychological evaluation that was like 360 questions and then another hour of interview… The vetting process is ridiculously thorough,” he explained to host Justin Long.
Despite the extensive background tests Gerry experienced before embarking on his journey as the Golden Bachelor, one thing managed to stay hidden — his three-year relationship with a woman whom The Hollywood Reporter calls Carolyn, which began just a month after his wife’s death.
Aside from Carolyn, Heather Lanning-Adams, a waitress at The Shady Nook (a bar and restaurant located next door to Turner’s new lake house), shared that within the past six years, she has seen Gerry date quite a few different women. “They weren’t all long-term, but they weren’t short-term either… He was with a couple of women for a decent amount of time, but it just didn’t work out,” she dished to The U.S. Sun.
If this is the truth, why did the 72-year-old share that he has had no love life since his wife died? Things are not adding up (to say the least).
Gerry and Carolyn started seeing one another in August 2017
Gerry and Carolyn were friends prior to the death of his wife, but things quickly took a turn in August 2017, just one month after Toni passed away.
“We got the shocking news that Toni passed away, so most everyone at the office went to the visitation in July,” Carolyn revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. “Then, in August, I got a phone call from Gerry… I was so shocked to hear from him.”
After chatting on the phone, the pair began to grow closer and closer to one another, making things official in September of 2017.
“The idea that I’d go out with a recent widower just mortifies me,” Carolyn shamefully continued. “I just really didn’t see it. Until I went back and looked at my text messages, I never realized Gerry’s texts had turned hot and heavy so relatively soon.”
Some of these texts were definitely crossing a line for someone who lost their wife of 43 years just mere months prior.
“Damn, I go to bed at night thinking of you and wake up in the morning thinking of you,” one text message shared. Another read, “I got LUCKY when you first said you would go to dinner with me two weeks ago. I mean how often does an old geezer get the beautiful girl?”
“You are the right woman for me. No need to look further,” dished a third.
Gerry and Carolyn broke up after he got too controlling
THR also spoke with individuals who are close to Carolyn and not afraid to air out Gerry’s dirty laundry, beginning with her friend, Susan McCreary.
“I just can’t believe this has happened to my girlfriend,” Susan prefaced, before diving into the details. “When Carolyn and Gerry first started dating, my husband and I took them to an Iowa football game… I thought, ‘This guy’s legit. This guy’s a really good guy for her.’”
Susan could not have been more wrong, with Gerry showing some extremely controlling behavior as soon as the pair moved in together in July of 2018.
After forcing Carolyn to quit her job and leave her friends and family behind, Gerry told her that her share of the expenses would be about $1,000 a month, which Carolyn negotiated down to $850. At restaurants, Carolyn would pay her half in advance, and then Gerry would pay for the whole meal when the check came, all in an attempt to look wealthy to the staff at the establishment.
With dozens of other wacky rules and regulations Gerry had put in place for their relationship, the pair eventually split up after the Golden Bachelor body shamed Carolyn prior to his high school reunion. “I’m not taking you to the reunion looking like that,” she remembers her then-boyfriend saying as he pointed at her body. Leading to a larger argument, she was uninvited from the high school reunion, resulting in their split at the end of 2019.
Telling her to be out of the house by Jan. 1, Gerry forced Carolyn to pack up her things in the freezing weather of Indiana, forcing her to live in a hotel alone. Naturally, she struggled after their breakup, suffering homelessness, injuries while packing up her belongings, verbal abuse from Gerry, and more.
Gerry Turner has yet to respond to these revelations about his past, and it remains to be seen how this will affect his burgeoning celebrity status and TV career.